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Phillies Designate Carlos Hernández For Assignment

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The Phillies announced Wednesday morning that right-handed reliever Carlos Hernández has been designated for assignment. His spot on the 26-man roster will go to fellow righty Michael Mercado, who’s been recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Mercado was already on the 40-man roster, so the Phils now have one open spot.

Hernández, 28, came to the Phils via waivers back in spring training. The Royals had attempted to passing the flamethrowing, out-of-options righty through waivers and retain him as a depth arm, but Philadelphia claimed the power-armed, 6’4″ righty in hopes of unlocking what’s long looked like some latent potential.

It hasn’t worked out thus far. In 25 2/3 innings out of Rob Thomson’s bullpen, Hernández has been tagged for 15 earned runs on 32 hits and 13 walks. He’s plunked a pair of hitters as well. The resulting 5.26 ERA is an eyesore, Hernández’s once strong strikeout rate has dipped below average; he’s fanned only 18.7% of opponents against a 10.6% walk rate.

Back in 2023, Hernández looked like a breakout arm in Kansas City’s bullpen in the season’s first half. He was averaging better than 99 mph on his fastball and carried a 3.57 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate into that year’s trade deadline. With the Royals operating as sellers and Hernández performing so well, he even looked like an under-the-radar trade chip for a club that, at the time, didn’t have much to peddle to deadline buyers.

The Royals hung onto Hernández — understandably so; he had four additional seasons of club control remaining — and things went south almost immediately. Hernández served up four runs in his third outing post-deadline, and his season snowballed from there. In 17 innings post-deadline, he was shelled for 20 runs. The strong command he’d displayed evaporated, as he walked more hitters than he struck out in the season’s final two months. Hernández missed about two months the following season due to shoulder troubles. He never required surgery, but his velocity has never returned to his 2023 levels, and his command has never rebounded to the levels we saw in the first two-thirds of the 2023 season.

Now that Hernández has been designated for assignment, the Phillies will either trade him or place him on waivers within the next five days. Waivers themselves are a 48-hour process. Within a week’s time, we’ll know what’s next for the hard-throwing righty.

Phillies Place José Alvarado On Restricted List

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The Phillies announced that left-hander José Alvarado has been placed on the restricted list to attend to a personal matter. Right-hander Michael Mercado has been recalled to take his active roster spot. Players on the restricted list don’t take up a spot on the 40-man roster, so the Phillies’ count drops to 39 for the time being.

The club hasn’t provided any information about Alvarado’s personal situation or how long he might away from the team. That will make his status a complete mystery until more information comes to light.

Alvarado has been an erratic but occasionally effective reliever in his career. He has walked 12.9% of batters he has faced but also struck out 29.6% of them. That wildness has led to oscillating results in terms of run prevention. He had a 2.39 ERA in 2018 but that number jumped up in the next three seasons, finishing between 4.20 and 6.00. He got down to 3.18 in 2022 and just 1.74 last year, but has bounced back up to 4.30 here in 2024.

For however long Alvarado is out of the picture, the Phillies will be down to Matt Strahm and Tanner Banks as their bullpen lefties. Kolby Allard and Tyler Gilbert are also on the 40-man roster but currently on optional assignment. The club could use their open roster spot to claim someone off waivers or promote someone already in the system, but Alvarado will need to be added back to the roster whenever he returns to the club.

Alvarado won’t collect pay or service time while on the restricted list. He and the Phillies agreed to an extension in February of 2023 which runs through 2025. Per that deal, his salary is $9MM this year. Each day he’s away will save the Phils about $48K, plus taxes. Per RosterResource, their current competitive balance tax number is $262MM. They are a third-time payor, meaning they pay a 50% tax on spending over the $237MM base threshold and a 62% rate on spending over the second line of $257MM. Subtracting Alvarado’s salary will also lead to about $30K in daily tax savings.

Phillies Activate J.T. Realmuto From 10-Day Injured List

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J.T. Realmuto is back in the Phillies’ lineup, as the catcher has been officially activated from the team’s 10-day injured list.  Right-hander Yunior Marte was also called up from Triple-A, and in corresponding moves, catcher Rafael Marchan and right-hander Michael Mercado were optioned to Triple-A.

After undergoing knee surgery on June 12, the expectation was that Realmuto would need roughly a month of recovery time, so he’ll return only slightly beyond that timeline (with the All-Star break also giving him a bit of extra time).  The first-place Phillies have just kept on rolling even with Realmuto out, Trea Turner and Brandon Marsh also having lengthy IL stints, and Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber having minimal 10-day IL absences.

With Realmuto now back, Philadelphia is again operating with all of its first-choice position players, making things even scarier for opposing pitchers.  Realmuto’s contributions to this powerhouse lineup have been fairly modest, as he has hit .261/.309/.411 over 223 plate appearances.

While still quite good for a catcher and above-average (102 wRC+) overall, Realmuto’s 26.9% strikeout rate is on pace to be the highest of his career, and his 5.4% walk rate would be his lowest since 2016 when he was still with the Marlins.  These rates are both well below the league average, though Realmuto is still in the 88th percentile of hard-hit ball rate and he is continuing to barrel the ball, with seven homers thus far this season.  The defense has been a mixed bag, with Realmuto throwing out 29% of baserunners but his blocking and framing work have been subpar.  Even if Realmuto is slowing down a bit in his age-33 season, he is still an overall plus for the Phillies, and he also doesn’t even have to be a top contributor in such a loaded batting order.

Marchan saw his first MLB action since 2021 in Realmuto’s absence, and looked impressive in hitting .294/.345/.549 over 56 plate appearances.  Despite these numbers, Marchan was likely optioned so he can continue to get regular playing time in Triple-A rather than get limited action as Realmuto’s backup, so Garrett Stubbs will continue on the active roster in the backup catcher role.

Latest On Phillies’ Rotation

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The Phillies are making an adjustment to their rotation. Rookie right-hander Tyler Phillips will make his first big league start on Saturday against the A’s, tweets Matt Gelb of the Athletic. Fellow rookie Michael Mercado is set to work from the bullpen.

Mercado, 25, just stepped into the starting five in late June. He threw five innings of one-run ball against the Cubs in his first MLB start. The Braves teed off on Mercado on Saturday, though, tagging him for five runs on a trio of homers before he could escape the second inning. While one poor start won’t change the organization’s view on Mercado, most prospect evaluators suggest his fastball-curveball arsenal is better suited for relief work.

A former second-round pick of the Rays, Mercado joined the Phils in a minor trade at the beginning of last offseason. He has started 10 of 14 appearances with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Mercado has a stellar 1.71 earned run average at the top minor league level. However, he has walked more than 11% of batters faced while averaging fewer than four innings per appearance.

Phillips has had a more conventional starting role with Lehigh Valley. He has started all 15 Triple-A appearances and averaged slightly more than six innings per game. His 4.89 ERA is a lot more pedestrian than Mercado’s mark, although he has shown somewhat better control (9.4% walk rate). Mercado throws a bit harder than Phillips does and has demonstrated a lot more bat-missing ability in the minor leagues. Phillips, whom the team added to the 40-man roster last week, has a modest 19.8% strikeout rate for the IronPigs. To his credit, Phillips punched out seven hitters across four innings of relief behind Mercado against Atlanta in his big league debut.

The Phillies have built enough of a cushion that they shouldn’t be concerned about some short-term uncertainty in their starting five. They’re eight games clear of the Braves for the division lead and 4.5 games ahead of the Dodgers for the National League’s top seed. An excellent rotation has been a major reason. Philadelphia’s front four of Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suárez and Cristopher Sánchez is arguably the best in MLB.

The fifth spot is the only question mark. Taijuan Walker allowed a 5.60 ERA over 10 starts before inflammation in his index finger sent him to the injured list a few weeks ago. Spencer Turnbull managed great results as a sixth starter, but he sustained a lat strain that’ll knock him out into August.

Barring injury, the Phils look like the rare contender that doesn’t need to urgently pursue rotation help over the next three weeks. Wheeler’s status is worth monitoring after the Phils lifted him at 76 pitches during tonight’s start. The team announced that the star righty was battling lower back tightness. After the game, skipper Rob Thomson called it a precautionary measure with the Phillies already holding an eight-run lead (X link via Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer). Thomson suggested the team would evaluate Wheeler tomorrow but indicated the club expects he’ll be fine to make his next start.

Michael Mercado Joining Phillies’ Rotation

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The Phillies have seen a pair of starters go down with injuries in the past week, as Taijuan Walker hit the injured list with a hand injury and Spencer Turnbull will be out up to eight weeks due to a lat strain. That’s left a vacancy at the back of Philly’s rotation, and it’ll be filled — at least in the short-term — by 25-year-old righty Michael Mercado, reports Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A second-round pick by the Rays in 2017, Mercado’s journey to Philadelphia’s big league staff in some ways mirrors that of new rotation-mate Christopher Sanchez. Both were traded from the Rays to the Phillies in prospect-for-prospect swaps that drew minimal attention at the time of the deal. Sanchez’s trade became one of note, as he’s risen his profile while infielder Curtis Mead (who went back to the Rays) emerged as one of Tampa Bay’s top prospects. Mercado is newer to the Phillies organization, having been acquired last November in exchange for minor league lefty Adam Leverett.

Since landing with the Phillies, Mercado’s results have been excellent. He’s pitched in 14 games with Triple-A Lehigh Valley, 10 of them starts, and posted a sterling 1.71 ERA in 47 1/3 frames. His 22.8% strikeout rate, 11.9% walk rate and .240 average on balls in play all suggest that ERA could be in for some regression, but it’s been a big step forward over his 2023 performance even if the microscopic earned run average doesn’t look entirely sustainable.

Mercado split the ’23 season between Double-A and Triple-A in the Rays’ system and worked almost exclusively out of the bullpen, pitching to a combined 4.79 ERA. To his credit, he fanned a massive 35.4% of his opponents working in short relief where his stuff could play up, but he also walked more than 13% of his opponents and surrendered a dozen longballs in 62 innings (1.74 HR/9).

At the time he was drafted, Mercado required an over-slot commitment to forgo his college commitment to Stanford. Baseball America called him “one of the most polished and projectable high school pitchers” in the 2017 draft class, ranking him as that year’s No. 48 draft prospect. He jumped right into the Rays’ top 15 prospects the following season. He suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament not long after the draft, however, wiping out his entire 2019 season. Like all other minor leaguers, he also lost the 2020 season when the Covid-19 pandemic led MLB to cancel the minor league campaign entirely. Home runs and walks continued to outweigh Mercado’s strong strikeout numbers throughout the remaining three years of his Rays tenure.

Now, with the Phillies in need of rotation help, Mercado will get a short-term look at the very least. Turnbull is out until at least mid-August. Walker won’t be eligible to return until at least July 7 and has struggled to an ugly 5.60 ERA in 10 starts even when healthy this season. Top Phillies pitching prospect Andrew Painter has yet to pitch this season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. The organization’s other top-ranked arm, former first-rounder Mick Abel, has an alarming 7.08 ERA and 15.5% walk rate in Triple-A this season. Depth options on the 40-man roster like Kolby Allard and Max Castillo have also pitched poorly in Triple-A.

All of that has paved the way for Mercado to get his first big league starting opportunity, more than seven years after he was selected with the No. 40 overall pick in the draft. The Phillies have one of the most enviable starting staffs in MLB with Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez and the aforementioned Sanchez leading the way, which should take some pressure off Mercado. But depending on how long Walker is out and how he and Mercado perform in the short-term, the former Rays prospect could pitch his way into a more prominent role with the Phils. Mercado already made his MLB debut this week, tossing one scoreless inning after being called up as a reliever, but a larger opportunity is now there for the taking.

Phillies Place Taijuan Walker On 15-Day Injured List

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The Phillies announced this morning that they’ve placed right-hander Taijuan Walker on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his right index finger. Right-hander Michael Mercado was recalled to the majors in a corresponding move. Mercado’s first appearance will be his big league debut.

Walker, 32 in August, has had a difficult 2024 season as he’s dealt with both injuries and ineffectiveness. A shoulder impingement delayed his season debut until the tail end of April, and he’s struggled considerably in ten starts since then. The righty sports a 5.60 ERA and 5.77 FIP overall on the season, figures that are 37% and 40% worse than the league average respectively. Just two of Walker’s ten appearances have been quality starts, and opponents have batted an eye-popping .278/.353/.511 against him in seven starts dating back to May 16. In other words, Walker’s opponents have teed off in recent weeks to achieve results roughly comparable to those Guardians star Jose Ramirez (.271/.330/.528) has posted this season.

Walker’s struggles came to a head Friday night against the Diamondbacks, when the righty allowed four runs on five hits and three walks across just four innings of work while striking out only three batters. Manager Rob Thomson told reporters (as noted by MLB.com’s Injury Tracker) yesterday that Walker was dealing with a “hot spot” on his finger and suggested that the issue has “been probably going on for a while.” Specifically, Thomson suggested that the injury may have impacted the efficacy of Walker’s splitter. The splitter was Walker’s most commonly used pitch last year, when he threw it 33.2% of the time according to Statcast. That usage has dropped to just 17.4% in 2024, and MLB.com notes that he’s thrown the pitch just sixteen times total over his past two starts.

That drop in usage has corresponded with a drop in efficacy. 2023 saw opposing hitters hit just .205 against Walker’s splitter, with a .295 slugging percentage and a .257 wOBA. Those strong results are a far cry for what the right-hander has produced with the pitch this year, as opponents have hit a whopping .426 with a .704 slugging percentage and a wOBA of .477. That .426 figure is the highest average allowed by Walker on any pitch this year, in sharp contrast to last year where his splitter boasted a lower average against than any pitch in his repertoire except for his rarely-used sweeper.

Given the fact that Walker’s finger issue has seemingly impacted his ability to throw his most important pitch, it’s hardly a surprise that the right-hander has suffered such extreme difficulties to this point in the season. Going forward, the Phillies will sit the righty down for at least the next two weeks in order to give the inflammation time to settle down. It’s surely a fairly easy decision for Philadelphia to not have Walker continue to try and play through the issue given the presence of right-hander Spencer Turnbull. Turnbull has been excellent for the club this year while swinging between the rotation and the bullpen, with a 2.63 ERA and 3.57 FIP in 51 1/3 innings across 16 appearances (six starts).

While Turnbull has not started a game since late April, the righty threw 49 pitches in his most recent outing on Friday and figures to be able to step into the rotation and offer the Phillies solid production in Walker’s stead. That leaves the long relief role out of the bullpen to Mercado, who is set to replace Walker on the club’s roster. Mercado was the Rays’ second-round pick in the 2017 draft but did not make an appearance at the big league level with the club before being traded to the Phillies back in November. Philadelphia swiftly placed Mercado on their 40-man roster and sent him to Triple-A to open the season, where he’s excelled with a 1.71 ERA and a 22.8% strikeout rate in 47 1/3 innings of work split between the rotation and bullpen at the level.

Rays Trade Michael Mercado To Phillies

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The Phillies have acquired right-handed pitcher Michael Mercado in a trade with the Rays, the team announced. In exchange, Tampa Bay received right-hander Adam Leverett as well as cash considerations. The Phillies have selected Mercado to the roster, leaving the team with two open spots on the 40-man.

Mercado, 24, was a second-round selection in the 2017 draft. A California high school product, he was regarded by Baseball America as a top 50 player in that year’s class. His climb up the ladder was stalled by an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery in 2019. Between that and the COVID year, he didn’t pitch for two full seasons. Mercado has posted middling results in the three years since that point.

Moved to the bullpen in 2023, the 6’4″ hurler allowed 4.79 earned runs per nine between Double-A and Triple-A. He struck out an excellent 35.4% of batters faced but walked 13% of opponents while struggling with home runs. Mercado clearly isn’t a finished product, but he intrigued Philadelphia’s scouts enough to secure a roster spot. He would have been eligible for minor league free agency today if not added to a 40-man roster.

Leverett was a 15th-round pick in 2019. He worked mostly out of the bullpen at Double-A Reading this year, posting a 3.94 ERA across 64 frames. The 25-year-old will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter but remains two years away from potential minor league free agency.

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